1/28/2009 8:22:30 PMFirst I'd like to offer my condolences to Jeremy on the loss of his friend.

It's not easy to change subjects after something like that, but here we go.

Today is not a good day to be a Terps fan. As you sit down to watch Duke take on Wake Forest, all you need to do is look at the bottom line and you see some nice Gary Williams vs. the Administration comments. You see the announcement that JSK is academically ineligible and you can imagine the recruits out there reading that and re-thinking their decisions to come to College Park.

I assume most of you have read the transcript from Gary Williams' lockeroom interview last night. If you haven't, check out either the Post or Sun's web page or go back a couple posts and find the link.

One positive with Gary's comments is that he clearly stated that he was not saying the administration had anything to do with Gus Gilcrhist or Tyree Evans not coming to College Park. Whether or not that's true, he made it public that it was his decision combined with the players decisions. Now, that can go a long way in not making things worse, but usually when the media gets ahold of such a story, they will start digging. And when they start digging, something bad is bound to come up.

I don't think this is going to end well, but I'm not convinced it will end this season. Personally, I'm all for Gary seeing the next 2 years through and then making a decision. If Gary is dismissed now, you can probably kiss our 2009 recruits goodbye. Plus, our 2010 targets are likely to go elsewhere, so making a move right now may not be in the best interests of the program considering our lack of talent at the moment.

Like I stated in a comment last night, I don't think we are far off from being right back in it. One or two players could be the difference. We have seen much to be encouraged about this season, but in order for these guys to learn how to win, something has to change. Perhaps adding two inside players can do the trick. Perhaps not. Perhaps another season of experience. Perhaps not. I'm lost to explain why the team is a bunch of chokers right now (and please don't give me the "they are not good players because Gary didn't recruit, blah blah). We've been over that. These are the players we have and every one of them have shown something good this season, so there is something there. They are good enough to be winners, but they just can't get over the mental block right now.

Anyway, back to Gary. I'm not sure how this will all play out. We are in for a long season and there will be plenty of talk about Gary's job security. Hopefully, Gary will calm down a bit with the media and avoid a major back and forth with the administration. If they can all calm down and just concentrate on the task at hand, they can get themselves out of this mess. This can be a quick turnaround with just one big recruiting class. Gary has proven he has put more into recruiting in the past year and if we can keep the recruits from bolting, we have a chance to get back. Once we get back into the NCAA tournament, we will be fine, I'm confident in that.